Councillor announces plan to withdraw from government-funded programme in run-up to May elections
The Reform-led Lancashire county council will withdraw from the government’s refugee resettlement scheme, one of its cabinet members has said.
Councillor Joshua Roberts announced plans for Lancashire to leave the scheme, which would make it the first local authority to do so.
Continue reading...Firms raising prices at fastest rate in three years, driven by soaring energy and wage bills but also extra materials costs
Airlines and other companies are increasingly using fuel surcharges to cover soaring costs, a survey has found, in a further sign of Iran war-linked inflation hitting the economy.
A poll of companies in the services sector, which includes airlines, found rising fuel prices had contributed to businesses raising prices at the fastest pace in more than three years in April.
Continue reading...Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps navy has announced the strait of Hormuz could reopen following the end of ‘threats from aggressors’
Job vacancies in the UK bounced back in March but remained near a five-year low, and openings for graduates slumped more than a third.
UK job vacancies showed signs of recovery in March, rising 3.74% month-on-month to 752,711 – the second monthly increase after an extended period of decline, according to the job matching platform Adzuna. Yet despite this tentative rebound, the overall picture remains tough for job seekers. Vacancies are still 13.60% lower than in March 2025, and the market remains near its weakest level since 2021.
Like BP last week, these are unearned windfall profits driven by Trump’s war with Iran.
Equinor now wants to cash in even more by developing the Rosebank oil field, which would be a terrible deal for the UK. This government must put the needs of the British public – for affordable energy and a safe climate – ahead of this Norwegian oil giant’s relentless pursuit of profit.
Continue reading...Biologists had guessed coyote paddled a shorter distance to former prison in the San Francisco Bay earlier this year
A lone coyote stunned biologists and others when earlier this year it paddled its way to the remote Alcatraz Island, a former federal prison in the San Francisco Bay surrounded by swift, choppy waters notorious for thwarting prisoners’ escapes.
At the time, biologists guessed the coyote swam from San Francisco, which is a little over 1 mile (1.6km) from the fortress. But it turns out the male coyote actually made an even longer swim from nearby Angel Island, 2 miles away.
Continue reading...Researchers say 481-metre wave in fjord was triggered by rockslide linked to climate crisis
A mega tsunami in Alaska last year in a fjord visited by cruise ships is a stark warning of the risks of coastal rockslides and glacier retreat fueled by the climate crisis, a new study warns.
Scientists recorded the world’s second-tallest tsunami after it struck the Tracy Arm fjord in south-east Alaska last August after a massive rockslide around the toe of a glacier. The tsunami reached 481 metres (1,578ft) in height; by comparison the Eiffel Tower is 330 metres (1082ft).
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